Donald Trump shelved plans to hike tariffs on most countries except China, unveiling a 90-day pause and pulling back from his global trade war after days of market turmoil and warnings of recession.

After insisting for days that he would hold firm on his aggressive trade strategy, Trump announced that all countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive a reprieve – and only face a blanket US tariff of 10% – until July.

Asked why he had ordered the pause, the US president told reporters: “People were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy.”

As Beijing prepared to slap punishing 84% tariffs on US goods from tomorrow, however, Trump said he would raise US tariffs on Chinese exports to 125% effective immediately.

“More than 75 countries” have contacted the US federal government “to negotiate a solution” since Trump unveiled plans for steep tariffs on their exports, the US president claimed in a post on Truth Social.

Stock markets soared after the announcement. On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 rallied by 9.5% – its biggest single-day increase since 2008 – and the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 7.9%.

The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite climbed 12.2% – its best day since 2001 – as shares in tech giants like Apple and Nvidia surged.

The rapid recovery drew a line under days of turbulent trading. US government bonds – traditionally seen as one of the world’s safest financial assets – had suffered a dramatic sell-off before Trump’s climbdown.

Trump held firm on plans to target Beijing, however. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” he wrote, as he unveiled the latest US tariff assault on China.

“BE COOL,” he had declared earlier on Wednesday. “Everything is going to work out well,” he said. Ultimately, he opted to back down – setting the stage for three months of frantic negotiations with dozens of countries.

Trump had been considering the move “over the last few days”, he later told reporters in the Oval Office. “We don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt,” he said. “And they all want to negotiate.”

While administration officials initially claimed Mexico and Canada would also be hit with a 10% US tariff, escalating tensions with the US’s closest trading partners and neighbors, it was later clarified that this was not the case.

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China has pledged to retaliate against Trump’s latest salvo from Thursday, increasing tariffs on US exports from 34% to 84% and branding the US president’s decision to escalate the trade war “a mistake on top of a mistake”.

EU member states, meanwhile, approved retaliatory 25% tariffs on up to $23bn in US goods – targeting farm produce and products from Republican states – from next week, in response to sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed by Trump last month.

Trump announced his decision to abruptly pause tariffs above 10% on dozens of countries during a congressional hearing featuring Jamieson Greer, his US trade representative.

“It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you,” the Democratic congressman Steven Horsford of Nevada told Greer. “This is amateur hour, and it needs to stop.”

For days, Trump’s insistence that his tariffs would be permanent – and confusion over whether they might be lifted by mooted deals – had intensified concerns over the potential impact on consumers and companies around the world.

In the UK, two Whitehall sources sounded increasingly downbeat about the prospect of getting any tariffs on British exports mitigated in a deal with the US, with Keir Starmer, the prime minister, repeatedly emphasizing on Wednesday that they were “not a passing phase”.

Asked by ITV’s Robert Peston whether the 10% tariffs were here to stay, and whether the 25% car tariff could be negotiated down, Starmer said: “Look, I don’t know. We are negotiating and we hope to improve the situation.”

Recession is a “likely outcome” of the current turmoil, the JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon, one of the most influential figures on Wall Street, suggested before Trump announced the 90-day pause.

“No one’s wishing for that but hopefully, if there is one, it’ll be short,” Dimon told Fox Business. “Fixing these tariff issues and trade issues would be a good thing to do.”

While Trump swiftly noted on Truth Social that Dimon had declared fixing trade issues to be a “good thing”, he omitted to mention the executive’s assessment on the threat of recession.

Some of the biggest companies in the US also warned of significant disruption. Walmart, one of the world’s largest retailers, cautioned that its profits would be “harder to predict” as it grapples with the impact of new tariffs on costs and customer spending.

Delta Air Lines pulled its annual financial guidance, citing uncertainty and fading consumer confidence, with the CEO, Ed Bastian, telling the financial news network CNBC: “We’re acting as if were going to a recession.”

As the White House insisted the president was standing up for “everyday Americans”, and accused his predecessors of “selling out American workers to foreign countries”, some of the leading export markets for US firms detailed plans for tariffs of their own.

China led the way, pledging to match Trump’s aggression by hiking its own tariffs on US exports from Thursday.

“The US’s practice of escalating tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which seriously infringes on China’s legitimate rights and interests and seriously damages the rules-based multilateral trading system,” the Chinese finance ministry said in a statement.

The EU plans to introduce 25% tariffs on scores of US goods, from almonds to yachts, with the first duties being collected from 15 April, while the bulk apply from 15 May and the remainder from 1 December.

While these tariffs are retaliating against Trump’s duties on steel and aluminum, the European Commission indicated that the second phase of the EU’s response – retaliatory measures against US tariffs on cars, and the blanket tariffs rolled out this month – are due to be presented “early next week”.

“The EU considers US tariffs unjustified and damaging, causing economic harm to both sides, as well as the global economy,” the commission said. The EU’s retaliatory tariffs on the US “can be suspended at any time”, it added in a statement, “should the US agree to a fair and balanced negotiated outcome”.

Ahead of Trump’s announcement, the FTSE 100 closed down 2.9% in London. The Hang Seng Index clawed its way out of the red to finish up in 0.7% in Hong Kong. The Nikkei 225 declined 3.9% in Tokyo.

Trump has repeatedly moved in recent days to assure his supporters that his strategy is the right way forward – and even declared late on Tuesday that he would expand his trade assault “very shortly” to include a major tariff on pharmaceutical imports.

“I know what the hell I’m doing,” he told political donors at the National Republican congressional committee’s annual fundraising dinner in Washington. “I know what I’m doing. And you know what I’m doing, too. That’s why you vote for me.”

Democrats have accused the president of economic havoc for which millions of Americans will pay the price.

“Donald Trump has spectacularly failed at the one thing people wanted him to do,” said Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader. “Instead of lowering inflation, he’s made it much worse. Instead of strengthening the economy, he has singlehandedly teed us up for a recession.”

Republicans are quietly pushing a procedural rule that would curb the power of the US Congress to override Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policy.

The House of Representatives’ rules committee on Wednesday approved a measure that would forbid the House from voting on legislation to overturn the president’s recently imposed taxes on foreign imports.

The sleight of hand was embedded in procedural rule legislation setting up debate on a separate issue: the budget resolution that is central to Trump’s agenda.

If adopted, the rule would in effect stall until October a Democratic effort to force a floor vote on a resolution disapproving of the national emergency that Trump declared last week to justify the tariffs. This mirrors a similar tactic used previously to shield Trump’s earlier tariffs.

The move came as Trump announced a major reversal on Wednesday, with a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries while raising them to 125% for China.

Despite concerns that Republicans were set to endorse another potential expansion of presidential power, Mike Johnson, the House speaker, asserted the tariffs were an “America First” policy that required space to be effective.

He told reporters: “I’ve made it very clear, I think the president has executive authority. It’s an appropriate level of authority to deal with unfair trade practices … That’s part of the role of the president is to negotiate with other countries … and he is doing that, in my estimation, very effectively right now.”

Republicans moved against a resolution introduced by Gregory Meeks of New York, along with other House Democrats, seeking to end the national emergency declared on 2 April. This declaration was used by Trump to implement sweeping new tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Republicans’ blockade specifically targets the expedited process for reviewing national emergencies outlined in the National Emergencies Act. It stipulates that the period between 9 April and 30 September will not count towards the 15-day window that typically allows for fast-tracked floor votes on disapproval measures.

Democrats strongly condemned the action, accusing Republicans of obstructing debate and prioritising Trump over the economy and congressional oversight.

Teresa Leger Fernandez, a congresswoman from New Mexico, said: “We only need four Republicans, only four Republicans to vote with Democrats to review the tariffs and stop this madness … Do you support tariffs that are throwing our economy into recession? Do you support tariffs that are hurting our families? … Then get up on the floor and debate that. But don’t prevent us from having that debate.”

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene of Washington added: “Congress should have a role here. It’s terrible that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle aren’t willing to have a vote, too.”

Although the rule change hinders the expedited process under the National Emergencies Act, it does not completely eliminate other avenues for forcing a vote, such as a discharge petition, though these are often difficult to achieve.

Meeks said: “They can run but they can’t hide. At some point they’re going to have to vote … We’re not going to stop. The American people have a right to know whether you’re for the tariffs or against them. And if they vote this rule in, that will show that they’re trying to hide.”

But Republicans countered that Democrats had used similar procedural tactics to block votes on issues such as ending the Covid-19 national emergency when they held the House majority.

The rules committee chair, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, said: “A reminder about those who live in glass houses … This is a tool utilised by both Democrat and Republican majorities.”

This is not the first time Republican leadership has employed such a tactic to shield Trump’s tariff decisions. A similar rule was adopted previously to prevent votes on resolutions targeting earlier tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, as well as levies on Canada specifically.

The UK and India have agreed 90% of their free trade agreement, businesses were told on a call with negotiators this week.

There are hopes the UK government will succeed in finalising a highly coveted trade deal with India, a booming economy of 1.4 billion people, this year.

A government source told the Guardian that mobility, which involves visas for Indian workers and has been one of the most contentious issues in the negotiations, had largely been resolved.

“We are nearly there. We are as close as we’ve ever been, but conversations at the political level cut both ways,” the source said.

At a briefing with UK negotiators from the trade department on Tuesday, businesses were told that 90% of the deal had been agreed and that some of the outstanding issues related to whisky, cars and pharmaceuticals.

The eventual deal could mean dramatic tariff reductions on scotch whisky and car exports to India, helping two sectors of the UK economy that are heavily exposed to the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs in the US.

The call with businesses took place before talks between Rachel Reeves and India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, about a bilateral investment treaty, which the UK and India are negotiating in parallel with the free trade agreement.

The treaty, which would establish legal protections for investments between the UK and India, is a top priority for ministers because of the benefits for the British financial services sector.

Sitharaman attended a working dinner with Reeves and Keir Starmer on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, she held talks with Jonathan Reynolds, the trade secretary, who travelled to New Delhi in February to formally relaunch the talks.

At an event at the Indian high commission before her meetings on Tuesday, Sitharaman said India was seeking more bilateral trade agreements as a result of global uncertainties “multiplying by the day”.

Speaking to reporters after the talks on Wednesday, she said there was a “great sense of positivity and dedication” to conclude the UK-India deal soon. Ministers announced a package of £128m in new export deals and investments with India after her visit.

Reeves said ministers were pursuing trade deals with countries including India because it was “imperative we go further and faster to kickstart economic growth”.

Keshav Murugesh, the chief executive of the technology company WNS, which is expanding its London headquarters, said closer ties would “fuel innovation and generate high-skilled jobs” in both countries.

Some of the issues that remained outstanding in the trade deal negotiations earlier this year included some agricultural exports and India’s demand to be excluded from the UK’s forthcoming border tax.

The Guardian revealed last year that India had asked for an exemption from the UK’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) – a planned tax on the import of carbon-intensive goods such as steel and fertiliser – on the basis that it is a developing country.

Any such exemption would be controversial because the tax is designed to support UK steel producers by levelling the playing field with countries that have a lower or no carbon levy.

The UK launched negotiations for a free trade agreement with India, which is seen as one of the biggest prizes of Brexit, in January 2022. Successive Conservative governments sought to strike a quick deal with no success.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is aware of at least 155 Chinese nationals fighting for Russia and accused Beijing of turning a blind eye to their recruitment and allowing them to participate in the invasion of his country.

Officials released two dossiers naming, and in some cases picturing, Chinese men who were said to have signed up, though Ukraine did not suggest this meant Beijing was seeking to enter the war alongside Russia.

The president told reporters in a briefing that he was not aware that China “gave some kind of command” to those now fighting for Russia. Still, he did say Beijing must have been aware some people were joining another country’s military in return for payment.

“We record that they [China] knew about it,” Zelenskyy said. “We record that these are Chinese citizens, they are fighting against us, using weapons against Ukrainians on the territory of Ukraine. Their motivation, money or not, politics, etcetera, is not yet known to me. But it will be known.”

Zelenskyy said he believed the US was “very surprised and believes that this is unacceptable” at a time when Washington and Beijing have become embroiled in a tariff trade war.

Compiled by Ukrainian intelligence, one of the documents pictured 13 Chinese soldiers aged between 19 and 45, with their passport details; while the second document listed names, dates of birth, their Russian unit and in some cases information about where they had been recruited.

“The ‘Chinese’ issue is serious. There are 155 people with names and passport details – 155 Chinese citizens who are fighting against Ukrainians on the territory of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said, adding: “We believe that there are more, much more.”

Comments from Chinese officials earlier on Wednesday suggested people were joining up on their own initiative, though officials in Beijing added the idea that significant numbers were involved in the war was “totally unfounded.”

Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said: “The Chinese government always asks Chinese citizens to stay away from conflict zones, avoid getting involved in any form of armed conflict, and especially refrain from participating in any party’s military operations.”

China says it is a neutral party in the conflict, though Russia makes heavy use of Chinese-made components in its arms industry, as does Ukraine. Both sides deploy Mavic drones from the Chinese manufacturer DJI, though Kyiv is trying to reduce its dependence on kit from Beijing.

Russia was seeking to recruit Chinese fighters by openly advertising on TikTok and other Chinese social networks, Zelenskyy said, arguing that “Beijing is aware of this”. They then travelled to Russia, typically Moscow, where they were first given medical examination over a three- to four-day period, he added.

The recruits are then given one or two months of training and asked to fight on occupied Ukrainian territory. They received official migration cards from the Russian authorities and were given access to an official payment system to receive money, Zelenskyy said.

Kyiv also named the two Chinese prisoners that previously had been announced as being captured on the battlefield on Tuesday as Wang Guangjun, born in 1991, and Zhang Renbo, born in 1998, and said it would be willing to exchange them for Ukrainian prisoners held by Russia.

Ukraine’s relationship with the US had become fraught as Donald Trump tries to persuade Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a ceasefire to halt their three-year war, but Zelenskyy may be hoping that the US president’s antipathy to China will improve his negotiating position.

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he would like the agency to implement a system of trucks that rounds up immigrants for deportation in a system similar to how Amazon delivers packages around the US.

“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” the acting Ice director, Todd Lyons, said. He said that he wanted to see a deportation process “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings”. His comments were first reported by the Arizona Mirror.

Lyons was one of a series of Trump administration speakers at the 2025 Border Security Expo at the Phoenix convention center. Other speakers were Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, and the secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem.

Speakers at the expo praised Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans, the 1798 law that was last used during the second world war to intern Japanese Americans. Noem promised to expand on its use to more efficiently deport immigrants. Lyons also called the act “amazing”.

Homan said “that is a law enacted by Congress, and we are using that”, referring to the Alien Enemies Act. At around the time of the expo, the US supreme court ruled that the Trump administration may continue using the law to deport alleged gang members.

Homan added that it “bothers him” when judges attempt to prevent him from using the act. He also said that family detention was still “on the table” as a policy.

Lyons also spoke highly of other new technology being potentially implemented in the deportation process. He expressed hopes that the agency could utilize artificial intelligence to “free up bed space” and “fill up airplanes”, allowing Ice to deport immigrants at a quicker pace.

The Ice director also said that he has been working with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) for access to social security numbers to look for “voter fraud”.

Several speakers, Homan included, echoed the opinion of having a deportation system that is run like a business, with assurance that the Trump administration is depending on the private sector for completion of its mass deportation agenda. Many representatives from the military-industrial complex were in attendance.

“Let the badge and guns do the badge-and-gun stuff. Everything else, let’s contract out,” Homan said.

Trump campaigned heavily on implementing a system of mass deportation, and has spent his presidency so far attempting to deliver on his campaign promises. Data suggests as many as 1,400 people were arrested during or right after Ice check-ins in the first four weeks of his administration.

One of Trump’s first actions after he was sworn in for his second term was to broaden Ice’s mandate. Now all immigrants without legal status are prioritized for arrest, including those who have been checking in and cooperating with authorities.

“Ice’s fantasy of becoming ‘Amazon Prime for deportations’ exposes the infrastructure behind Trump’s deportation agenda: mass removals powered by big tech and data,” Cinthya Rodriguez, national organizer for the Latinx advocacy group Mijente, said. “Over the years, Ice has contracted with tech companies to automate policing, relying on the dehumanization of immigrant communities.

“To seek to automate deportations at Amazon-like speed only furthers that harm,” she added “These policies are cruel, reckless and driven by white supremacy and greed – not safety.”

Avelo Airlines recently said it had signed an agreement to fly federal deportation flights for the administration from Mesa, Arizona, beginning in May. Several thousand people signed a petition urging the airline to halt plans to carry out the deportation flights.

The mass deportations and ongoing cases of people being detained by Ice has caused unease and fear among immigrants and foreign visitors to the US. Recent data suggests that flight bookings between Canada and the US are down by over 70%.

Federal judges in New York and Texas on Wednesday took legal action to block the government from moving five Venezuelans out of the country until they can fight the government’s attempt to remove them under a rarely invoked law that gives the president the power to imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war.

The men were identified as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, a claim their lawyers dispute.

Three men were being detained in a facility in Texas, while two more were being held in an Orange county, New York, facility. One man in Texas is HIV-positive and fears lacking access to medical care if deported.

Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr signed a temporary restraining order in Texas while Judge Alvin K Hellerstein said at a New York hearing that he planned to sign a temporary restraining order as well to block removals while the court challenges proceed.

The actions came after civil liberties lawyers in Texas and New York sued in defense of the Venezuelans who are at risk of removal from the US under the the 18-century Alien Enemies Act.

All five men were identified by the government as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang.

The men were identified as gang members by physical attributes using the “alien enemy validation guide”, in which an Ice agent tallies points by relying on tattoos, hand gestures, symbols, logos, graffiti and manner of dress, according to the ACLU. Experts who study the gang have told the ACLU the method was not reliable.

The lawsuit sought class action status to affect others who were detained and faced similar deportation. The ACLU had requested a temporary restraining order to keep their petitioners in the US and for the judge to declare the Alien Enemies Act, which the Trump administration is invoking, unlawful.

In New York, Hellerstein set a hearing for 22 April to decide whether a temporary restraining order he planned to sign on Wednesday would be turned into a preliminary injunction. The case pertains to two Venezuelan men who also face deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. Civil liberties groups have sued the government on behalf of the two men, one 21 the other 32, who were being held by immigration authorities at a jail about 45 miles (72km) north-west of New York City.

The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times in the past, during the war of 1812, the first world war and the second world war, when it was used to justify the mass internment of people of Japanese heritage while the US was at war with Japan.

The United States is not at war with Venezuela, but Donald Trump’s administration has argued that the US was being invaded by members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

US immigration authorities already have deported more than 100 people and sent them to a notorious prison in El Salvador without letting them challenge their removals in court.

On Monday, the supreme court allowed the Trump administration to use the wartime law to deport Venezuelans accused of being gang members, but it also ruled the administration must give them the chance to legally fight any deportation orders.

The ruling did not address the constitutionality of the act. The ACLU is asking the judge in Texas to decide on whether it was lawful to use the Alien Enemies Act.

The administration plans to expand its use for members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, Todd Lyons, the acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) director, told reporters on Tuesday during Border Security Expo, a trade show in Phoenix.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it will begin monitoring immigrants’ social media accounts for antisemitism, prompting some advocacy groups to push back and condemn the news as an “excuse to move a cruel, anti-immigrant, authoritarian agenda”.

In a statement on Wednesday, USCIS said that it will start “considering aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests”.

The new guidelines will apply to individuals applying for permanent resident status, international students and aliens affiliated with “educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity”.

“There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs.

“Secretary [Kristi] Noem has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-Semitic violence and terrorism – think again. You are not welcome here,” McLaughlin added.

The latest announcement – which comes amid the Donald Trump administration’s growing crackdown on protesters demonstrating against Israel’s deadly war on Gaza – has prompted criticism from several advocacy organizations and progressive Jewish groups viewing the news as part of a campaign to repress legitimate speech under the guise of fighting hate.

In a statement on BlueSky, the Nexus Project, which fights antisemitism and defends free speech, condemned the announcement, saying: “Treating antisemitism as an imported problem does not fight antisemitism. Using politically malleable language like ‘terrorist sympathizer’ to go after immigrants does not fight antisemitism. Doing this while elevating antisemitism, as this administration is doing, does not fight antisemitism.”

Similarly, Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish organization, said: “The Trump administration will begin screening immigrants’ social media for “antisemitism. This will NOT fight antisemitism. This is simply using Jews as an excuse to move a cruel, anti-immigrant, authoritarian agenda. We refuse to be used this way.”

Since taking office in January, federal immigration authorities have detained numerous students – including green card holders – as well as abruptly revoked the visas of dozens of international students who secretary of state Marco Rubio have described as “lunatics”.

Among the anti-war students who have been detained is Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was arrested in front of his pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla, in early March.

Another scholar detained by immigration officials was Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University. The Department of Homeland Security accused him of having ties to Hamas, which he denies.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who has been given the designation of a “special government employee” by the Trump administration, made back-to-back apparent fascist salutes during Trump’s inauguration rally earlier this year.

A few weeks later, during the Munich Security Conference, JD Vance, the vice-president, broke a taboo in German politics by meeting with Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s far-right political party Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

Then earlier this month, during a Capitol Hill hearing that sought to explore supposed government censorship under Joe Biden, Republican representative Keith Self quoted Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister under Adolf Hitler.

“A direct quote from Joseph Goebbels [the Nazi propaganda minister]: ‘It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion,’ and I think that may be what we’re discussing here,” he said.

A campus protest is planned at the University of Florida on Wednesday in support of a Colombian student deported by the Trump administration following his arrest for alleged traffic violations.

The family of Felipe Zapata Velázquez, 27, said on Tuesday he was “undergoing a physical and emotional recovery process” in his home country after police arrested him in Gainesville on 28 March for offenses including having an expired tag and suspended driver’s license, then turned him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

The agency has come under scrutiny in recent days for taking an aggressive approach to foreign nationals studying in the US, with dozens of international students reporting the abrupt cancellations of their visas, some reportedly for speeding tickets or other minor non-criminal infractions.

In one of the most prominent cases, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate who led pro-Palestinian demonstrations at its New York campus last summer, remains in Ice detention in Louisiana and awaiting deportation following his arrest more than one month ago.

The Florida Democratic congressman Maxwell Frost accused authorities of “kidnapping” Velázquez, who held an F-1 student visa and was a third-year undergraduate majoring in food and resource economics at UF.

“Felipe Zapata Velázquez is just the latest victim of Trump’s disgusting campaign against immigrants,” Frost said in a statement issued while the student was in federal custody in Miami.

“What should have been a routine traffic stop resulted in a nightmare as Felipe is now forced to live in the hell on Earth that is the Krome detention center.

“Donald Trump and Ice are running a government-funded kidnapping program. Showing up in unmarked vans, with plain clothes officers, they are kidnapping people off the streets and jailing them inside of detention centers without due process and with little cause.”

Ice did not respond to reporters’ requests for comment.

Dimitris Liveris, of the UF chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America, which is organizing Wednesday’s campus protest, told NBC Miami: “Right now, we’re seeing waves and waves of fear throughout the student body because people don’t know what’s going to get them placed in an Ice prison.”

NBC obtained a statement from Velázquez’s mother, Claudia, in Colombia, who said her son chose to sign papers for his own deportation rather than remaining in detention while a legal fight played out.

“Felipe is undergoing a physical and emotional recovery process, and we are prioritizing his wellbeing and overall health,” she said.

“I sincerely appreciate the interest, solidarity, and support that many have expressed regarding my son’s situation. When his situation is fully clarified, and if he deems it appropriate, Felipe will personally address any additional requests or communications.”

Velázquez was reportedly stopped by police in Gainesville on the evening of 28 March and cited for having an illegal license plate or attached mobile home sticker, driving with a license suspended or revoked with knowledge, and having an expired tag, per NBC.

Footage from an officer’s bodycam captured him stating: “I’m an international student. I just came from Colombia.”

His mother said he was in the process of renewing his student visa when he was arrested. He was transferred into the custody of Ice, who took him first to a holding facility in Jacksonville, then to the Miami detention center.

In February, Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, touted a new law ordering the state’s 67 sheriff’s offices, and municipal police departments, to collaborate with Ice and act as federal immigration agents with the authority to detain undocumented immigrants.

Yvonne Hayes Hinson, a Democratic state senator who represents Gainesville, condemned Velázquez’s arrest.

“It’s saddening to see a UF student detained by Ice for driving with an expired license and registration tag,” she said.

“To be detained for such an offense is outlandish and quite alarming. Though the department of state can revoke non-immigrant visas, including F-1 visas, for arrests for certain offenses, such as driving under the influence, did registration and an expired license fall under the scope of arrest and detainment?

“Immigrants are under attack now more than ever. We must speak up and not allow this to continue without voicing outrage.”

The health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said on a press tour that his response to a large measles outbreak in west Texas should be a “model for the world”. The statement came after Kennedy attended the funeral of a third measles victim over the weekend.

Kennedy’s response to the outbreak has been widely criticized by epidemiologists and public health experts, who argue he failed to give a full-throated endorsement of an extremely effective vaccine, that cases appear to be severely undercounted and that officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been deployed late.

“The numbers continue to grow by the day, but … the growth rate has diminished substantially,” Kennedy told reporters during a press conference, while promoting his health agenda through the American south-west.

Public health experts have said that, in fact, there is little evidence to support this claim.

“I would compare it to what’s happening in Europe now,” Kennedy continued, according to Politico. “They’ve had 127,000 cases and 37 deaths. And so, what we’re doing right here in the United States is a model for the rest of the world.”

Kennedy appeared to reference figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) released in March. In that instance, global health officials were referring to cases across 53 countries in Europe and central Asia, which make up the WHO’s “European region”. Included in that tally are nations such as Romania and Kazakhstan, which together account for nearly 60,000 cases.

“Measles is the most contagious illness that we know of and it is preventable,” said Susan Polan, associate executive director of the American Public Health Association. “What we’re seeing now… is a far, far undercount in terms of the actual number of cases.”

Before the current outbreak, the US had not had a measles death since 2015. Three people have now died as a result of the Texas outbreak, and nearly 500 people have gotten sick, according to Texas authorities. Because measles has an average death rate of one to three per 1,000, public health officials believe cases are undercounted. The measles vaccine is 97% effective at preventing the disease.

On Sunday, Kennedy said CDC staff would be redeployed to the outbreak in Texas. This week, Kennedy also said the best way to prevent measles is to get the vaccine. However, he also used his attendance at a measles victim’s funeral to promote unproven therapies for measles in a social media post.

“We should have had more people on the ground – this should have been a priority for weeks and weeks,” said Polan.

Measles was eliminated in the US in 2000. However, anti-vaccine sentiment first stoked by a fraudulent scientific paper in the Lancet and then by non-profits, such as the one Kennedy led for nearly a decade, has stoked a dramatic increase in vaccine hesitancy.

The decline in trust in vaccines has been especially precipitous among Republicans and Republican-leaning adults. A Gallup poll from August 2024 found the percentage of Republicans who believe it is extremely important to vaccinate children fell from more than 60% in the early 2000s to 26% in 2024.

As trust in vaccines wanes among Republicans, and Kennedy himself voices lackluster support, Kennedy has enjoyed high trust ratings among Republicans – nearly as high as Donald Trump himself.

Kennedy made the comments as the department he oversees, Health and Human Services, undergoes a dramatic and largely opaque restructuring. A total of 20,000 positions have been eliminated between a cut of 10,000 made by Kennedy and an additional 10,000 employees cut by billionaire Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency”.

The CDC lost 2,400 employees in the restructuring. Overall, HHS will lose nearly a quarter of its workforce. Kennedy has also installed vaccine skeptics in important roles within the agency, including at least one who has paused approval of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Further, basic research into mRNA vaccines has been under threat during Kennedy’s tenure. Before he took office, he tried to force the federal government to rescind authorization for Covid-19 vaccines.

Kennedy’s statements also come as HHS has clawed back more than $11bn in funding to local and state health departments – including grants that had funded immunization clinics near the measles outbreak in Dallas.

In an interview with CBS News, Kennedy denied knowledge of the clawbacks, and said: “I’m not familiar with those cuts … The cuts were mainly [diversity, equity and inclusion] cuts.”

The most comprehensive circuit diagram of neurons in a mammalian brain has been created by scientists, providing groundbreaking insights into the mystery of how the brain works.

The map is of a speck of a mouse’s visual cortex, smaller than a grain of sand, and traces the structure of 84,000 neurons linked by half a billion synapses and approximately 5.4km of neuronal wiring. The 3D reconstruction of the cubic millimetre of brain is helping uncover how the brain is organised and how different cell types work together, and could have implications for the understanding of intelligence, consciousness and neuronal conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism and schizophrenia.

The advances are “a watershed moment for neuroscience, comparable to the Human Genome Project in their transformative potential”, according to Dr David Markowitz, former programme manager of the US governmental organisation Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), who coordinated the work.

The MICrONS project sought not only to map the structure of neurons, but also investigated the electrical signalling between then, showing how they communicate and providing a better picture of the hidden conversations in the brain.

Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas began by using specialised microscopes to record the brain activity from the target region as the animal watched various movies and YouTube clips. Afterwards, Allen Institute researchers took that same cubic millimetre of the brain and sliced it into more than 25,000 layers, each 1/400th the width of a human hair, and used an array of electron microscopes to take high-resolution pictures of each slice.

Finally, another team at Princeton University used artificial intelligence and machine learning to reconstruct the cells and connections into a 3D volume. Combined, the massive data set is 1.6 petabytes in size, equivalent to 22 years of non-stop HD video.

“Inside that tiny speck is an entire architecture like an exquisite forest,” said Dr Clay Reid, senior investigator and a neurobiologist at the Allen Institute. “It has all sorts of rules of connections that we knew from various parts of neuroscience, and within the reconstruction itself, we can test the old theories and hope to find new things that no one has ever seen before.”

The findings reveal new cell types and a new principle of inhibition within the brain. Scientists previously thought of inhibitory cells – those that suppress neural activity – as a simple force that dampens the action of other cells. But the latest work found that inhibitory cells are highly selective about which cells they target, creating a network-wide system of coordination and cooperation.

Understanding the brain’s form and function could pave the way for a better understanding of brain disorders involving disruptions in neural communication.

“If you have a broken radio and you have the circuit diagram, you’ll be in a better position to fix it.” said Dr Nuno da Costa, associate investigator at the Allen Institute. “We are describing a kind of Google map or blueprint of this grain of sand. In the future, we can use this to compare the brain wiring in a healthy mouse to the brain wiring in a model of disease.”

The findings are published in a series of papers in the journal Nature.

At least 23 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in northern Gaza, as reports emerged that the Israeli military is preparing to seize the entire city of Rafah as part of a newly announced security corridor.

Medics at al-Ahli hospital said that the bombing on Wednesday of a four-storey building in the Gaza City suburb of Shijaiyah had killed at least eight women and children, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors into the evening. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior Hamas militant.

According to the UN, nearly 400,000 people have been forced to leave their homes or shelters since Israel decided to abandon a two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas, cutting off aid, food and fuel on 2 March and resuming large-scale bombing two weeks later. A total of 1,500 people have been killed and 3,700 injured since then, according to the local health ministry.

Earlier this week, Hamas fired its strongest volley of rockets into Israel since the ceasefire collapsed, aiming 10 projectiles toward the southern city of Ashkelon that injured 12 people.

Israeli officials say the renewed military campaign is aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued sweeping evacuation orders amid a vow from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to “divide up” and seize large swathes of the territory.

On Wednesday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the IDF was preparing to incorporate the entire city of Rafah and its surroundings – one-fifth of the entire Gaza Strip – into the new “Morag corridor” between Rafah and Khan Younis. Such a move would cut off Gaza from Egypt and turn the territory into an enclave completely surrounded by Israel.

The report has renewed fears of permanent displacement for the strip’s 2.3 million residents and inflamed worries that Israel intends to establish permanent control of the Palestinian territory.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in which Israel says 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, were killed and a further 250 taken captive. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 50,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Mediators have since attempted to bring the sides to a bridging agreement that would again pause the war, free hostages and open the door for talks on ending the conflict, but Netanyahu, under pressure from rightwing allies, says Israel will not agree to stop fighting until Hamas is defeated. Hamas wants the war to end before it frees the remaining 59 hostages it holds, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.

Netanyahu this week travelled to the US – Israel’s most important political and military ally – to meet Donald Trump, who has said he wants the war to end. He has suggested expelling Gaza’s population either voluntarily or by force. While Israel has embraced Trump’s vision, the rest of the Middle East and the international community have refused to entertain the idea.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

At least 23 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in northern Gaza, as reports emerged that the Israeli military is preparing to seize the entire city of Rafah as part of a newly announced security corridor.

Medics at al-Ahli hospital said that the bombing on Wednesday of a four-storey building in the Gaza City suburb of Shijaiyah had killed at least eight women and children, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors into the evening. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior Hamas militant.

According to the UN, nearly 400,000 people have been forced to leave their homes or shelters since Israel decided to abandon a two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas, cutting off aid, food and fuel on 2 March and resuming large-scale bombing two weeks later. A total of 1,500 people have been killed and 3,700 injured since then, according to the local health ministry.

Earlier this week, Hamas fired its strongest volley of rockets into Israel since the ceasefire collapsed, aiming 10 projectiles toward the southern city of Ashkelon that injured 12 people.

Israeli officials say the renewed military campaign is aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued sweeping evacuation orders amid a vow from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to “divide up” and seize large swathes of the territory.

On Wednesday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the IDF was preparing to incorporate the entire city of Rafah and its surroundings – one-fifth of the entire Gaza Strip – into the new “Morag corridor” between Rafah and Khan Younis. Such a move would cut off Gaza from Egypt and turn the territory into an enclave completely surrounded by Israel.

The report has renewed fears of permanent displacement for the strip’s 2.3 million residents and inflamed worries that Israel intends to establish permanent control of the Palestinian territory.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in which Israel says 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, were killed and a further 250 taken captive. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 50,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Mediators have since attempted to bring the sides to a bridging agreement that would again pause the war, free hostages and open the door for talks on ending the conflict, but Netanyahu, under pressure from rightwing allies, says Israel will not agree to stop fighting until Hamas is defeated. Hamas wants the war to end before it frees the remaining 59 hostages it holds, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.

Netanyahu this week travelled to the US – Israel’s most important political and military ally – to meet Donald Trump, who has said he wants the war to end. He has suggested expelling Gaza’s population either voluntarily or by force. While Israel has embraced Trump’s vision, the rest of the Middle East and the international community have refused to entertain the idea.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

A transgender woman who was erroneously identified as a helicopter pilot involved in the Washington DC crash that killed 67 people has filed a lawsuit against one of the conservative influencers who spread the false claims about her.

Jo Ellis, whom the Guardian wrote about after she was thrust into the spotlight, is suing Matthew Wallace, the person behind the X account, for defamation, claiming Wallace “concocted a destructive and irresponsible defamation campaign” that monetized a “false narrative” about her.

Ellis is represented by the Equality Legal Action Fund. The suit was filed in federal court in Colorado, where Wallace is believed to live.

The 29 January crash – where a helicopter hit a commercial airplane – led to a swarm of claims that diversity was to blame. Ellis, who was not involved in the crash in any way, is a Black Hawk pilot with the Virginia national guard. To dispel the rumors, she posted a video showing she was alive, effectively refuting the claims because all involved in the crash had died.

At the time, her name was trending on X. Wallace’s posts to his more than 2 million followers about Ellis, naming her as the pilot and in some cases including her photo, received millions of views, the suit notes. It doesn’t appear Wallace started the rumor, but he amplified it considerably.

As a result, Ellis has received threats, including “credible death threats”, and hateful messages, many of which are transphobic, the suit claims. “Gaining infamy overnight caused Plaintiff and her family tremendous suffering,” the lawsuit says. “Plaintiff was devastated that her story was overshadowing the tragic events of the plane crash and likely causing more suffering for the families who lost their loved ones. She also feared for her safety and for the safety of her family.”

Wallace issued tweets to “correct” the false information after Ellis posted her proof-of-life video, but the lawsuit categorizes them as “making excuses for creating viral lies”.

Ellis was previously a private citizen, but was “forced into the public sphere and can no longer remain a private citizen” because of Wallace, the suit claims, saying: “Given her immediate notoriety and the fact that she is a transgender woman, she fears for the immediate safety of herself and her family on account of the hate inspired against her by Defendant’s lies.”

Ellis told the New York Times she would donate any monetary damages she could receive in the case to the families of the crash victims.

“I believe in free speech, but I also believe in consequences to free speech,” Ellis told the New York Times. “If you can stir up a mob because you say something that’s not true, that’s your right. But once the mob comes after someone, you’ve got to have some consequences.”

The safety, security and life of the Duke of Sussex is at stake in his appeal against arrangements for his security while in the UK, the court of appeal has been told.

Prince Harry appeared at the high court in London for a second day as he challenged the decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures, known as Ravec, that he should receive a different degree of protection at public expense while in the UK after he stepped down as a working royal and moved abroad.

The duke’s legal team argue Ravec breached its terms of reference when it failed to get an assessment from an “expert specialist body”, called the risk management board. It came up with a “bespoke process” for him, which he believed had singled him out for “different, unjustified and inferior treatment”.

In closing submissions at the end of the two-day appeal, the duke’s barrister, Shaheed Fatima KC, told three appeal court judges: “One must not forget the human dimension to this case. There is a person sitting behind me whose safety, whose security and whose life is at stake.

“There is a person sitting behind me who is being told he is getting a special, bespoke process when he knows and has experienced a process that is manifestly inferior in every respect.

“His presence here and throughout this appeal is a potent illustration, were one needed, of how much this appeal means to him and his family.”

The Home Office, defending the appeal, has said Harry’s “bespoke” security arrangements are designed to accommodate his “unique set of circumstances”.

Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said Ravec’s decision for a “bespoke” arrangement, whereby the royal’s security would be decided on a case-by-case basis, was seen to have “positive advantages” as a flexible, tailored approach better suited to the duke’s circumstances.

It was “hard to imagine”, Eadie said, someone more experienced than the then Ravec chair Sir Richard Mottram, a senior civil servant with experience overseeing national security, to make a decision to accommodate “the unique and unusual circumstances of the appellant [Harry]”.

Although no assessment by the risk management board was conducted in Harry’s case, Eadie argued Ravec’s terms of reference were not intended as “hard-edged rules”. He said: “Ravec is able to draw upon expertise and is itself expert and experienced in a thoroughly important way.”

Judges have been told Harry’s case is not that he should be automatically entitled to the same protection he was given as a working royal, but that “he should be considered under the terms of reference and subject to the same process as any other individual being considered for protective security by Ravec, unless there is a cogent reason to the contrary”.

A high court judge ruled last year that Ravec’s decision, taken in early 2020 after Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, stepped down as senior working royals, was lawful. Harry’s legal team argue the judge erred in his judgment.

Parts of Wednesday’s hearing were held in private owing to security concerns. Shortly after proceedings were paused to allow the room to be cleared, a member of the public shouted her support for the duke and said: “If you’re members of the press, you’re the reason he’s no longer in England.”

The judges, Sir Geoffrey Vos, Lord Justice Bean and Lord Justice Edis, will give their decision at a later date.

A Democratic senator has introduced a bill that would prohibit awarding government contracts and grants to companies owned by special government employees, taking aim at Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO.

The bill, authored by Jeanne Shaheen, the longtime Democratic New Hampshire senator, is an attempt to prevent conflicts of interest and was crafted in response to Musk’s role in the White House, where Donald Trump has designated him a special government employee, according to a Senate aide. Special government employees, which also include many members of Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), serve a limit of 130 days and are exempt from some financial disclosure rules.

“Those who step up to serve our country should do so because they want to contribute to the betterment of our nation – not because they stand to benefit from their public service at the expense of taxpayers,” Shaheen told the Guardian.

Shaheen’s bill would specifically block an executive agency from awarding a “contract, grant, or cooperative agreement” to any company in which the beneficial owner was a special government employee with more than 5% ownership stake. Senate Republicans, who hold the chamber’s majority, have shown little interest in backing any attempts to rein in Musk’s power or compel more transparency into his actions, however, while Trump has repeatedly defended Musk against criticism.

Democrats and ethics watchdog groups have frequently objected to Musk’s numerous conflicts as he serves as the de facto head of Doge and a senior adviser to the president. Musk’s companies, most notably SpaceX and the satellite communications service Starlink, have extensive and expanding ties with government agencies as well as contracts worth billions of dollars.

As Musk and his team have rapidly moved to dismantle entire federal agencies and cut government services in recent months, former government employees have also warned that the world’s richest person is laying groundwork for his own private companies to further entrench themselves. Musk’s Starlink is reportedly up for potential contracts with several federal agencies, and was already donated for use across the White House complex – a move that this week prompted Democrats on the House oversight committee to express “deep concerns” in a letter to the administration.

“Donations such as this raise considerable red flags as to whether Mr. Musk is using his position in the federal government to benefit his companies,” the letter stated.

Musk’s conflicts also extend beyond his contracts with the government. The billionaire’s companies, such as Tesla and Neuralink, are involved in a wide range of regulatory battles and investigations with agencies that Doge and the Trump administration have targeted for cuts.

In addition to Democratic lawmakers attempting to push back against Musk, several labor groups and government watchdog organisations have also filed legal challenges alleging that Doge is violating federal ethics, privacy and transparency laws. Trump has meanwhile downplayed issues over Musk’s conflicts of interest, with the White House stating that the tech billionaire will essentially police himself while working with Doge.

Coffee creamer brand Coffee-Mate developed two limited-edition flavored creamers – piña colada and Thai iced coffee – in collaboration with the HBO hit television show The White Lotus. But, after the show’s season finale aired on Sunday night, the Nestlé-owned company was taken aback when a batch of poisoned piña coladas nearly caused the deaths of four of the show’s main characters.

“Well this is awkward” the creamer brand wrote in an Instagram post on Monday, accompanied by a picture of the piña colada-flavored creamer.

In the final episode of the show’s third season, set in Thailand, disgraced businessman Timothy Ratliff devises a plan to blend seeds from a poisonous tree into the frozen beverage, intending to kill himself, his wife, his elder son and his daughter. He ultimately changes his mind and spares his unsuspecting family.

Unfortunately, nobody cleaned out the blender after he made the lethal cocktail. The next day, Ratliff’s son Lochlan uses the blender – which still contains leftovers of the poisonous mixture – to prepare a protein shake, which nearly results in his death.

Daniel Jhung, president of the Nestlé USA coffee and beverage division, told the Wall Street Journal this week that the marketing team behind Coffee-Mate was notably unaware of the plot involving piña coladas before the episode aired.

“We didn’t know that piña colada was such a featured part of the last episode,” Jhung said. “I will say that in hindsight, we were showing the different flavors, and the fact that The White Lotus team was like, ‘Oh, you know, piña colada is a really good idea, you should go in that direction’ – it now kind of makes sense.”

The company launched the limited edition The White Lotus-themed flavored creamers in partnership with Warner Bros ahead of the show’s third season, which premiered on 16 February.

Jhung said that Sunday night’s episode took the Coffee-Mate team by surprise, and that the team quickly devised a social media plan to react, sharing the “awkward” post on Instagram.

“The ‘awkward’ post got picked up quite a bit by consumers, by other brands, because it was so perfect with the show’s ending,” Jhung said.

Jhung told the Journal that it’s still too early to determine whether the episode impacted sales of the flavored creamers since they won’t receive consumption data for another week.

“We’ll probably see next week how it did this week,” he said, adding that “the show going on week by week is helping drive buzz for the flavors. So they’re both doing really well in market through the first quarter.”

Jhung said that he suspects that next week, when the sales data comes in, that the piña colada flavor “will see a bit of a lift as people try it, just for the novelty aspect”.

The essence of limited-time offers, Jhung added, is about “mysterious flavors, intriguing flavors that are not typical in the coffee set, and so it kind of fits well with the show, which is about mystery and intrigue”.

On TikTok, some fans of the show have made videos reacting to the finale and the flavored coffee creamer collaboration.

One TikTok user shared a video of the piña colada creamer in their fridge, with the caption “I got this back in February being like wow what a random flavor for the Thailand season,” adding: “NOT MIKE WHITE MAKING OUR COFFEE AN EASTER EGG.

“PSA EVERYONE WASH YOUR BLENDERS BEFORE RE-USING PLZ,” the user added.